Bernie Fuchs

Bernard Fuchs (born 1932 in O'Fallon, Illinois) is an American illustrator. Fuchs grew up in humble circumstances with no father. His ambition was to be a trumpet player, but an industrial accident after Fuchs graduated from high school cut short that dream. Fuchs then turned to art as a career, despite he fact that he'd had no formal art training. He enrolled in Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he graduated in 1954.

His first job was illustrating car advertisements for an art studio in Detroit. He was wildly successful, and thus able to return to O'Fallon to marry his high school sweet heart, Anna Lee Hess. Together they raised three children.

Within a few years after moving to Detroit, Fuchs' work was so popular that he was able to start his own company with a couple of partners. Fuchs' studio, called The Art Group, soon became the most popular commercial art studio in Detroit and did work for all of the top auto companies. By the late 1950s, Fuchs was ready to advance to the next stage. he moved from Detroit to Westport Connecticut where he began doing illustrations for all of the top magazines of the day, including McCalls, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Sports Illustrated and others. His strong style spawned many imitators in the 1960s and 1970s.

Fuchs was the youngest illustrator ever elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. He was also voted artist of the year and received numerous other awards.

He has painted portraits of several U.S. Presidents including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. His works are also of athletes and celebrities such as Muhammad Ali, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ted Koppel and Katharine Hepburn.

In 1991, Fuchs was named Sport Artist of the Year by the American Sport Art Museum and Archives. Fuchs was commissioned for the illustration of four U.S. postage stamps which were released in 1998. The stamps featured folk musicians Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry and Josh White.

Internal link

*List of TV Guide covers